Sunday, July 20, 2014

Though I've been cooking for 50 years now, it's only in the last 12 months that I have become truly comfortable with deep-frying. Before then I had done it several times (but not a lot) and the results were pretty good, but I never felt truly comfortable and happy working with all that bubbling hot oil. It was just a bit scary, and to my mind cooking shouldn't be scary.All that changed when I started deep-frying in a wok, and that's because I started cooking Luke Nguyen's Spicy Deep-Fried Quail the way he suggests, in a wok. Much easier.

Deep-fried spicy quail, cooked in a wok.

And so while my garden is almost asleep in this, the coldest winter we've had in Sydney for several years, I'm busy in the kitchen keeping our hard-working artist, Pammy, well-fed while she produces 31 paintings in 31 days for an upcoming group exhibition called – you guessed it – '31 Days'.For overseas readers, if you are thinking "who is Luke Nguyen?" he is a Sydney restaurateur and TV presenter whose travel and food shows are well worth seeing, especially those celebrating the food of Vietnam and South-East Asia. What follows is his recipe, in words and photos, as cooked by me.

First, cut out the backbone of 6 quail. (These little birds aremost often bought in a 'tray' of 6 birds here in Sydney. One traycosts $15 in Marrickville, but it might cost more elsewhere.)Then place them in the marinade for a few hours. Just beforedeep-frying, take the quails out of the marinade and pat-drywith paper towels, as pictured here.

Here's the marinade recipe.1 teaspoon dark soy sauce1 tablespoon soy sauce1 1/2 teaspoons salt2 teaspoons sugar1/2 teaspoon five spice powder1/2 teaspoon ground ginger2 star anise, crushed (I do it in a mortar & pestle)1 1/2 teaspoons Shaoxing (Chinese) cooking wine125 ml waterThe Shaoxing cooking wine is readily available in any Asian food store. It's cheap, too. A 750ml bottle is just $1.30 here in Marrickville.Next, get that oil in the wok up to the right temperature before adding the quail!

I use a temperature gauge (available at cooking supply stores.)This comes with a long 'probe' that sits in the oil, plus a littleclip that holds onto the side of the pot. There's even a little slidingpointer that you can move around to the desired temperaturesetting. In this case that's 180°C.

For this recipe I use 1.5 litres of Rice BranOil. I prefer this oil as it is one of the few oilsavailable which is free of unhealthy Trans fats.

I won't bang on too much about Trans fats here,but they are actually banned in some Europeancountries, but here in Australia it is quite hard tofind oils which are completely free of them. Havea look at the labels on all the common cookingoils next time you're at the supermarket, andyou might be surprised how many have Transfats listed. Rice Bran oil is free of them.What's so bad about Trans fats? Here's a link.

OK, so we've got our ideologically sound oil up to 180°C, next step is to add three of your 6 quail. Woo-hoo! Action!

This is where I conquered my fear of deep-frying. It looks veryspectacular but is quite stable. Enjoyable in fact. Let the quailsdeep-fry for 5 minutes exactly.

As soon as you add the quails you'll notice that the temperatureof the oil drops from 180 down to about 160. Don't be temptedto turn up the gas flame (or the heat) to compensate. It's okay!

At the end of 5 minutes, scoop out the quails onto paper towels,then wait a minute or so and the oil will be back to 180°C,ready for the second batch of quails to be added to the oil.

The quails come out looking lovely. Once the second batch iscooked, cut each quail into four pieces (two drumsticks plusthe body of the bird cut in two down the breastbone. A Chinesecleaver does it so easy, but any big knife will do the trick.

Well before you started cooking, of course you were so wellorganised that you made the lemon pepper dipping sauce,whose Vietnamese name is Muoi Tieu Chanh, says Luke. (But I suspect there's a few accents on various lettersin that name, so forgive me for not knowing them.)

To make the dipping sauce, combine 2 tablespoons (homegrown) lemon juice with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon fine white pepper. Stir to combine (the pepper can clump up a bit, so stir very well to make sure it is all truly combined). And no, you cannot use black pepper. It has to be white pepper!

Finally, serve the quails on a bed of salad,with the dipping sauce on the side.

Luke suggests a salad of tomato, Lebanese cucumber and water cress, but I've replaced the water cress with crispy lettuce tossed with (home-grown) wild rocket. (And I'll be doing a blog on that wild rocket soon. Such a good vegie garden plant!).And so it's thanks to Luke Nguyen and his recipe that I now feel not only confident about deep-frying but actually quite interested in doing a bit more from now on. When you deep-fry correctly, with the oil at the right temperature, the results are not at all oily. The meat is instantly sealed and crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. All the oil stays in the wok and the result is very, very delicious.

2 comments:

Mamma mia! Great post Jamie. The fried quails look golden delicious, and I'm sure that dipping sauce and bed of salad tastes exceptionally fine because they have your lovely home-grown produce. Love the photos, esp. of the gauge, and the last pic of course. :)